TAPESTRIES 



369 



the Restoration new vigour was imparted to it ; it passed from 

 the direct patronage of the king and was acquired in 1674 by 

 the Montagus, whose house at Boughton (see pp. 196-199) retains 

 many splendid examples from its looms. But by this time the 

 factory at Gobelins was producing work as fine as that at 

 Mortlake, if not finer, and this circumstance, together with the 

 declining taste for tapestries, brought the Mortlake venture to 

 an end in I7O3. 1 Tapestries were at all times chiefly for the 

 wealthy, but early in the eighteenth century they began to go 

 out of fashion, and 

 were superseded by 

 the other modes of 

 decoration already 

 described. 



At the beginning 

 of the eighteenth 

 century fireplaces 

 were, as a rule, still 

 contrived for the 

 burning of wood 

 logs. They were 

 \vide and deep, and 

 were generally sur- 

 rounded by a very 

 bold moulding of 

 stone or marble, like 

 that in the Town 

 Hall at South Mol- 

 ton (Fig. 292). The 

 panelling of the room 



was often brought up to the marble, and continued above it 

 with an additional richness over the fireplace ; but sometimes 

 there was a special margin provided round the large moulding, 

 as in the case of South Molton. Occasionally it was found 

 convenient to place the fireplace in a corner of the room, 

 which led to some such ingenious treatment as that in Fig. 294, 

 which is from a room at Boughton House. 



Open fireplaces like these required fire-dogs on which to 

 place the logs for the increase of the draught, and a great variety 



1 " Guide to an Exhibition of Tapestries, Carpets, and Furniture, lent by 

 the Earl of Dalkeith to the Victoria and Albert Museum," by A. F. K., 1914. 



25 



FIG. 294. Corner Fireplace at 

 Boughton House. 



